The Pella girls and Knoxville boys track teams more than distanced themselves from the pack Monday evening, as they looked sharp in their respective events at the Little Dutch Invitational at Pella High School.
On the girls’ side, Pella owned all but one of the relay events and took first AND second in multiple events to come away with a staggering 13 gold medals and 188 team points – over 111 ahead of second-place Newton.
Leading a handful of Lady Dutch athletes with multiple gold medals were Nadine VanZomeren and Marielle Gaiser. VanZomeren was a winner in the 100 and 400 meter dashes, and anchored of the winning Sprint Medley Relay; while Gaiser took gold in the 100 and 400 meter hurdles and was the lead leg of the first place Shuttle Hurdle Relay team.
The Knoxville girls finished in fourth place in the team standings with 72 points, with Katie Ayers leading the way with gold and silver in the Shot Put and Discus, respectively.
Pella Christian’s 38 points earned them seventh place; with 18 of those points coming from the relay team of Sarah Faber, Leah Breon, Miranda Spurgeon and Jasmin Schelhaas, who placed first and second in the 4×100 and 4×200 meter relays.
Just as Pella had done in the girls’ meet, the Knoxville boys dominated the relay events – taking first place in all but the 4×100 and Shuttle Hurdle Relay – on their way to 160 points and first place in the boys’ portion of the meet.
Complementing the Panthers’ ownership of the relay events were a pair of individual golds for Alex Edwards in the 400 and 800 meter runs and first-place finishes by Ty Dunkin and Derek Seddon in the Shot Put and Discus, respectively.
The Pella boys took third place with 100 points – just three behind Norwalk – as the Little Dutch claimed a number of silver medals, but just one gold; courtesy of Jace Versteeg in the 110 Meter Hurdles.
Pella Christian finished a distant fourth, but earned three gold medals. Chase Carlson won the 100 Meter Dash, Nate Tvedt took the 200 Meters, and both ran on the winning 4×100 meter relay team.
Eight girls teams and seven boys teams competed at the Little Dutch Invitational, which served as the final preparation before Thursday’s District Meet for most squads.
Click here for complete girls’ team standings and results.
Click here for complete boys’ team standings and results.